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Individuals and Families with Complex Estates (Page 5)

Estate Documents for a Complete Plan

Your will or trust is just one document in a comprehensive estate plan. Drafting a Power of Attorney and a Living Will (Advance Healthcare Directive) to allow others to act on your behalf in case you are incapacitated or otherwise need assistance is also a good idea. Our online partner platform gives you the option to create both documents at no cost to you. Your state may have restrictions on who can serve as an agent, so we recommend reviewing regulations on your state’s website to ensure your agent would be eligible to serve if needed. Your state’s website may also have blank templates of these documents available.

POA

A Power of Attorney (POA) designates someone to act on your behalf for personal and/or financial matters. This designee is called your agent or attorney-in-fact. You can give your agent general powers to act on your behalf in any matter, or you may limit their powers. There are two primary types of POA documents available: a durable POA goes into effect immediately upon signing, enabling your designated agent to act on your behalf in any time of need, and would also continue throughout your incapacity; a springing POA gives your agent power in the future, only upon the occurrence of a specific event you define, such as a physician certifying your incapacity in writing.

Living Will/Advance Healthcare Directive

A Living Will documents your wishes regarding medical decisions in case you are incapacitated or otherwise unable to make your own medical decisions. This is often combined with an Advance Healthcare Directive, which designates someone to act on your behalf for such healthcare decisions. By drafting these documents, you can ensure your emergency or end-of-life medical care wishes are met while also providing guidance for your agents and loved ones so they can take comfort in knowing they are acting according to your wishes.

Non-Legal Supplemental Documents

When storing your estate documents, it is helpful for your executor to have a list of all your accounts.

  • An Account List/Beneficiary Plan document can organize your account information in one place so your executor knows whom to contact to facilitate the transfer of your accounts to their beneficiaries (or to the estate if no living beneficiaries are named).

  • A similar helpful list you can include is a Digital Asset Inventory. This would include logins and passwords for your social media, financial institutions, online vendors, and even your computer itself. You can also include instructions for your digital executor to deactivate memberships and social accounts or distribute things like your digital photos to your loved ones.

  • In addition, a Letter of Instructions or Personal Property Memorandum can provide instructions for distributing tangible personal property directly to friends and family. Since this is a supplemental document drafted by you, you could make the letter very personal and even explain why you want certain items to be passed to each person.

  • Finally, if your will or trust does not have a section for a personal statement, you could consider including one as a separate letter. Your Personal Statement is also a great place to include your personal testimony or other statement of faith, ensuring that your love for Jesus is passed down in your legacy.

Prayer and Action Items

☐ Decide if you would like to create or update your POA and Living Will/Advance Healthcare Directive – and pray through who you would select as your agents for each.

☐ Consider one or more of the non-legal supplemental documents and start gathering the pertinent information in one central location. (We highly recommend creating an Account List/Beneficiary Plan and a Digital Asset Inventory.)

Next Steps

If one or more of the situations in this section apply to you, or if you’re interested in discussing other complex estate issues in greater detail, one of our Gift & Estate Design Consultants can walk you through all considerations from a biblical perspective. We are here to serve The Alliance family where faith and finance meet. Click here to schedule a call with one of our consultants.

Our online tools and personalized consultations offer a variety of biblically based, tax-wise options that make it easy to support local and global Alliance ministries while bringing tangible returns on your investments.

If you feel prepared to draft your documents now, we recommend working with an estate planning attorney. For references to attorneys in your area, Contact Us or check out the links in the Additional Resources below.

Additional Resources

There are many online tools available to draft estate documents. These tools can be a good fit for less complex estates but often don’t allow for customized solutions. An attorney will usually be the best fit if you are looking to customize your plan in any way.

If you are interested in finding out the capabilities of online tools, we have a free partner platform available here.

Even if you draft your will or trust through an estate planning attorney, this tool can be helpful in drafting a free Power of Attorney or Living Will/Advance Healthcare Directive. Optionally, you can utilize our custom guides to collect the needed information in advance of drafting these documents on our partner platform:

If you are interested in hiring an estate planning attorney, financial advisor, or other financial professional, these links contain searchable databases of Christian professionals in your area:

Questions?

For questions about using our online partner platform, please visit our Will Planning Partner Platform FAQs page.

For any estate planning-related questions, please email or call 866-802-1490, and one of our team members will be happy to assist you.

  • "You should have two financial goals in life: to make a little money first, and then to make a little money last."

    Unknown

  • "If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor, indeed. We are bought by the enemy with the treasure in our own coffers."

    Edmund Burke

  • "Every man ought to have money on his mind. No man ought to have money on his heart."

    Anonymous

  • "How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver."

    Proverbs 16:16

  • "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surly to poverty."

    Proverbs 21:5

  • "Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth."

    Ecclesiastes 11:2

  • "Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it."

    Henry David Thoreau

  • "We are not to jude thrift soley by the test of saving or spending. If one spends what he should prudently save, that certainly is to be deplored. But if one saves what he should prudently spend, that is not necessarily to be commended. A wise balance between the two is the desired end."

    Owen D. Young

  • "There's no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can't do any business from there."

    Colonel Sanders

  • "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner has stored up for the righteous."

    Proverbs 13:22

  • "Planning one's finances must take place under the sovereignty of God, recognizing His omnipotence, wisdom, purposes, and plans."

    Ron Blue

  • "If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area of his life."

    Billy Graham

  • "God can have our money and not have our hearts, but He cannot have our hearts without having our money."

    R. Kent Hughes

  • "Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share."

    I Timothy 6:18

  • "Ultimately, financial planning is the predetermined use of financial resources in order to accomplish certain goals and objectives. The difference in financial planning between the Christian and the non-Christian is the belief as to whom the financial resources belong and the source of the goals and objectives."

    Ron Blue

  • "…every spending decision is a spiritual decision"

    Ron Blue

  • "Stewardship is the use of God-given resources for the accomplishment of God-given goals."

    Ron Blue

  • "A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart."

    Jonathan Swift

  • "Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can."

    John Wesley

  • "A man's treatment of money is the most decisive test of his character - how he makes it and how he spends it."

    Moffat

  • "Financial planning is allocating limited financial resources among unlimited alternatives."

    Ron Blue